The Midas Legacy

24

Sperou moved cautiously to the galley door and checked the passageway outside. Empty. The group who had just passed had come from aft. She leaned out to look in that direction. One of the doors was open, a shadow warning her that someone was standing just inside it.

The Glock raised, she padded quietly down the passage. The shadow’s source gradually came into view as she neared the hold. A man, wearing a wetsuit; and beyond him she glimpsed the ship’s crew sitting on the floor, heads down.

She could simply sneak up to the guard and shoot him, but the gunshot would alert the other hijackers. Instead, she carefully judged his height. She would only get one chance…

Sperou crept up to the doorway, readied herself — then whipped around it and smashed the base of the Glock’s grip against the guard’s temple. Caught completely unawares, Honnick reeled in blinding pain, crashing against a bank of shelves. She drove home a second brutal blow. This time the guard went down and stayed there.

The prisoners looked up at her, surprised and relieved. ‘Is everyone all right?’ she whispered.

Rouphos tried to stand; she helped him up. ‘Yes. They had guns, but they used tasers on us first.’ He turned to show her the plastic band trapping his wrists. ‘Get this off me!’

‘Hold on,’ Sperou replied. There was nothing in the room that could cut the zip-tie, so she hurried back to the galley, quickly returning with a pair of meat shears. A single snip, and the restraint fell off.

Rouphos took Honnick’s gun, then helped the other crewmen up, the chef cutting each free in turn. ‘There are guns hidden in the other hold,’ said the captain. He nodded at the two nearest men. ‘Come with me to get them. Everyone else go with Sperou to the weapons locker. Once we’re all armed, I’ll go up to the bridge and retake the controls. The rest of you find Mr Trakas and either get him off the ship — or kill those pirate bastards!’

‘What about the people who came to see Mr Trakas?’ a man asked as the group began to exit.

‘If they’re working with the hijackers,’ replied Rouphos grimly, ‘kill them too.’

‘Ana!’ shouted Lonmore, jumping to his feet. ‘What the hell is this?’

‘Has he given up the Crucible?’ Anastasia replied, indicating Trakas.

‘No, but—’

‘Then we’re doing what should have been done from the start.’ The blonde turned her gaze to the younger Lonmore. ‘And you — you’re working with Trakas? I should have known you’d sell out the Legacy to get revenge. You bitter, greedy little boy.’

‘Hey, fuck you, Ana!’ Spencer snapped back, only to flinch away as the scowling De Klerx pointed his gun at him.

Trakas regained his composure. ‘You think the Crucible is here? I will have to disappoint you, Anastasia.’

‘Then where is it?’ she demanded.

‘At one of my facilities.’

‘Which one?’

The Greek shrugged. ‘If you kill me, you will never find it.’

‘But you’ll be dead,’ said De Klerx. ‘Gold is no use to you then.’

‘Oi!’ Eddie said loudly, drawing everyone’s attention. ‘You’re all pretty wound up about this, but you know what? It’s not our problem. We’ll just be on our way and leave you lot to it, if you don’t mind. Come on, love.’

He stood, about to lead Nina to an exit — but Anastasia flicked her gun in their direction. The weapon did not remain aimed directly at the couple, but the threat was clear. ‘Stay here,’ she said. ‘Nina, I’m not going to let Trakas keep the Crucible, but giving it to the IHA is not acceptable either.’

‘Point that fucking thing somewhere else,’ Eddie warned her. ‘Or you’ll regret it.’

De Klerx turned away from Spencer and Axelos to jab his own weapon at the Yorkshireman. ‘If you threaten her again, I will kill you!’

‘It’s okay, Rutger,’ said Anastasia. ‘Nina, I don’t want to do anything drastic. But we are not leaving Greece without the Cru—’

A gunshot — and De Klerx’s man at the lounge’s aft doorway fell, blood spouting from a ragged bullet hole in his back. Anastasia flinched away in shock, while Petra screamed.

Two of the yacht’s crew rushed down the passageway and darted into the cover of rooms to each side, the cook covering them with her smoking gun from the stairs to the lower deck. ‘Let Mr Trakas go!’ she shouted.

The Dutchman flattened himself against the bulkhead beside the entrance. The other man who had followed Anastasia into the lounge brought up his gun to shoot down the passage—

The tycoon’s hand whipped under the table and snatched out a revolver that had been taped beneath it. He fired without hesitation at the hijacker, the round ripping into the side of his chest. The man flopped to the carpet like a rubber bag full of water. Lonmore yelped in horror.

De Klerx spun to face the unexpected danger — and Axelos burst into action, hurling himself bodily at the Dutchman. His gun arm was knocked away from its new target as he fired, the bullet blowing out one of the large windows. A great waterfall of shattered safety glass fell to the floor behind Nina and Eddie.

Axelos slammed De Klerx against the bulkhead. But even with the wind knocked from him, the brown-haired man kept fighting, grappling with the bodyguard. Trakas aimed his revolver at a new target: Anastasia. She stiffened as the gun swung at her. ‘Ana! Tell your man to stand down.’

‘Rutger, stop,’ Anastasia said with angry reluctance. De Klerx gave Trakas a rage-filled glare, then ceased fighting. Axelos shoved him face-first against the wall before stripping him of his other weapons and equipment.

‘This is not the first time I have been threatened on my own ship,’ said Trakas. ‘Now, Ana. Drop your gun.’ Her pistol clunked to the carpeted deck. ‘Good.’ He moved to her and kicked the fallen weapon clear, then shifted position to cover his guests. ‘Greece is a seafaring nation. We do not like pirates.’

‘Augustine, I swear I had nothing to do with this,’ said Lonmore, hands spread in entreaty as he stepped closer to his friend. ‘This wasn’t—’

He moved between Trakas and Eddie — and the Englishman responded instantly. ‘Nina!’ he yelled, grabbing the table and flipping it over. It hit Lonmore, sending him reeling into Trakas and Anastasia. Before either Greek could react, the couple had leapt through the broken window and run aft down the port-side walkway.

‘Where are we going?’ Nina shouted.

‘Off this fucking boat!’ Eddie looked towards the stern. The launch that had brought them aboard was still moored at the dock—

An armed crewman rounded the rear of the superstructure. The Englishman swerved, pulling his wife with him through a hatch. A narrow passageway lay before them, but he suspected it would lead back to the central corridor, and Trakas’s people. ‘Up here,’ he said instead, scaling a steep ladder to the deck above.

Nina followed him up into what turned out to be the bridge. It was unmanned, an autopilot apparently steering the yacht. ‘Ghost ship,’ she said.

‘Sounds like there’ll be more ghosts aboard soon,’ replied Eddie as gunfire erupted from the decks below. The crew were retaking the vessel. He looked around. The only other exit was a sliding door at the wheelhouse’s rear that led on to a long sun deck running the length of the superstructure, the mainmast rising from it like a gleaming redwood. ‘There’s a ladder at the far end — or worst comes to the worst, we can jump down.’ He threw open the door.

More crewmen rushed into the lounge, aiming at anyone unfamiliar. ‘Mr Trakas!’ one shouted. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Yes, I’m fine,’ Trakas replied. ‘Watch her.’ Even in the midst of a tense situation, he still gave Anastasia’s athletic wetsuited body a look of leering appreciation, which she did not fail to notice. Nor did De Klerx, whose lips curled into a snarl. ‘What’s happening? How many others are there?’

‘We saw seven as well as these two, but there might be more.’

‘Two less now.’ Trakas gave the dead men a dismissive glance. ‘Where’s Rouphos?’

‘On his way to the bridge.’

‘Good. We need to—’ He broke off as another exchange of gunfire from the deck below was accompanied by a detonation that rattled the floor. The shrill clamour of a fire alarm echoed through the ship.

‘What was that?’ gasped Lonmore.

‘The gas tanks!’ Trakas replied, concerned. ‘One of your idiots must have shot them.’

‘They’re not my idiots!’ the American insisted. ‘I’m telling you, I came here to negotiate as a friend, not—’

The Greek waved him to silence. ‘Later. Much later!’

‘We’ve got to get you off the ship,’ Axelos told his boss.

Trakas’s reluctance at abandoning his yacht was clear, but he nodded. ‘Okay. Bring them with us.’ He gestured at the four prisoners. ‘There are two more, a bald man and a woman,’ he told his crew. ‘Find them!’

Nina and Eddie raced along the upper deck. The mainsail’s long boom extended out over the water off the starboard side, the great canvas triangle pushed firm by the wind. ‘Christ, now what?’ said Eddie as a strident alarm sounded.

‘Great, the ship’s on fire!’ replied Nina. ‘Just what we need.’

‘At least there’s plenty of water to put it out— Shit!’ A crewman was scaling the ladder in the deck’s aft corner.

A rack holding several life vests was mounted on the side railings. Eddie snatched one up and hurled it at the crewman. The man instinctively raised an arm to protect his head. The impact of the flotation device knocked his gun from his hand, sending it clanging to the deck below. He cursed, glancing after it before realising that the approaching intruders were unarmed.

‘Get to the boat!’ Eddie called to Nina as the crewman reached the deck and rushed at them. She swerved clear as the two men collided. The Greek had hoped his charge alone would be enough to knock the other man down, but Eddie was prepared for it, dropping and twisting to take the impact on his shoulder while simultaneously driving a punch into his attacker’s stomach. ‘Go on, go!’

She hesitated, but while the man was much younger than her husband, he was also obviously a far less experienced fighter. Winded, he swung a couple of flailing blows at Eddie’s head, neither of which landed more than a glancing impact as the Yorkshireman drove him backwards. Now confident that the brawl would end quickly, she ran to the end of the deck.

The launch had been joined at the floating dock by the speedboat that had towed the parasailing Trakas. A choice of two — and no one else in sight. She hurriedly descended the ladder. ‘Eddie, come on!’

Above, Eddie whipped up his arm to deflect another blow before snapping a punch at the crewman’s face. The younger man reeled back, but didn’t fall.

He had to put the Greek down before he and Nina could escape. Fists raised, he advanced—

The crewman glanced past him — then shouted. Eddie was sure nobody could yet have caught up from behind, but the flash of hope in the other man’s eyes hadn’t been faked. He risked a split-second look back at the wheelhouse. A figure was visible inside. Rouphos. If he had a gun, the situation was about to get a lot worse.

Eddie made another lunge at the crewman, who hurriedly retreated. He followed, aiming to trap the sailor in a corner to bring the fight to a rapid end—

The deck rocked under his feet as the yacht made a sharp turn. Rouphos bellowed something in Greek.

Eddie hurriedly stabilised himself, expecting the crewman to make a counterattack, but he too had braced against the change of direction, dropping low. What had the captain warned about?

The answer came a second later as the mainsail’s swinging boom smacked against the back of Eddie’s head.

A moment of insensate blackness… then pain filled his skull to overflowing as he regained full consciousness. He forced open his eyes to find himself looking up at the sky, the crewman standing over him with a mocking smile. Rouphos arrived, handing his subordinate a gun and issuing a command before helping him drag the woozy Englishman upright. ‘If you were a sailor, you would have kept your head down around the mast!’ the captain said. Eddie tried to think of a comeback, but all he managed through the pulsing throb assaulting his brain was an irate groan.

Shouts caught Rouphos’s attention. Eddie endured a moment of nausea as he turned to watch him hurry to the aft railing — and beyond him saw Nina reach the yacht’s stern.

But the captain wasn’t looking at her, instead calling down to someone on the deck below.

Nina glanced back, hoping to see Eddie following her, but instead saw Trakas, Axelos and a number of the ship’s crew emerge from the superstructure. Spencer was with the burly Greek, his father and Petra being pushed along behind them with Anastasia and De Klerx. Rouphos stood at the end of the deck above, framed by a plume of dark smoke rising from the ship’s side.

Now she spotted Eddie behind him, but to her horror he was being held by the sailor. The fight had gone badly. And things were about to go the same way for her too, as Trakas’s bodyguards caught sight of her.

Nowhere to hide on the dock—

Instead she leapt down the nearby stairwell, landing hard at the bottom as a gunshot cracked from above. She threw open a door and rushed inside.

‘No, don’t shoot her!’ Trakas barked at the trigger-happy sailor. ‘Get after her, catch her!’ The man ran to the stairwell.

‘You want her alive?’ Axelos asked as the group reached the dock.

‘She might be useful,’ said the tycoon thoughtfully, before his attention returned fully to the situation at hand. ‘Put them in the launch. Keep them well guarded,’ he ordered, before having a partial change of mind. ‘No, the girl comes in the speedboat with me.’

‘Ana!’ yelled De Klerx as he and Anastasia were separated. He lunged at the man holding her, but another crewman dragged him back.

‘What about me?’ asked Spencer.

‘You come with me too,’ Trakas told him. He looked back at Rouphos on the upper deck. ‘That one as well!’ he shouted, pointing at Eddie. ‘Bring him—’

A loud, deep whump from somewhere within the Pactolus shook the deck — and a moment later a second explosion erupted into the open as a section of the starboard side amidships blew apart. Everyone staggered—

De Klerx smashed an elbow into the gut of the man holding him, folding him double. Before anyone could react, he vaulted off the launch’s bow into the sea, bringing up both arms to enter the water in a dive.

Two crewmen fired after him, bullets smacking into the waves as the dark figure dropped beneath the surface. ‘Rutger! No, stop!’ Anastasia cried from the speedboat.

Axelos ran to the end of the dock. The yacht was rapidly pulling away from the expanding splash marking the Dutchman’s landing, still making almost ten knots. ‘I don’t think we got him,’ he reported. ‘He went deep enough for the water to stop the bullets.’ He looked back at Trakas. ‘We can go after him in the boats when he surfaces.’

Another blast from the ship’s innards made everybody turn. A noxious black cloud was now boiling from the ruptured hull. ‘What the hell?’ gasped Lonmore as fire whipped past. The sea itself was alight, the Pactolus leaving a ragged trail of flame in its wake.

‘The fuel tanks!’ Rouphos cried. ‘We’re leaking fuel!’

By now the sailor had brought Eddie to the aft deck. ‘Abandon ship!’ Trakas ordered. ‘Everyone get off while we can!’

‘The fire control systems should be able to handle it,’ Rouphos insisted.

‘If they could stop that, they already would have!’ Trakas pointed at the mainmast. The fire swirling from the hole in the yacht’s side had swept up to reach the sails. ‘We leave, now!’

‘What about him?’ asked Axelos, pointing after De Klerx.

‘Forget him! We need to get to shore.’

Eddie didn’t understand the exchange going on between the Greeks, but the combination of the renewed rush to board the boats and the flames licking along the yacht’s starboard side meant that he got the gist of it very quickly. ‘Where’s Nina?’ he demanded as he was ushered at gunpoint to the dock. ‘Where is she?’

‘She went back inside!’ Petra cried from the launch.

‘What? Then bloody get her out of there!’ he yelled at Trakas.

The magnate waited for the Englishman to be put into one of the speedboat’s rear seats beside Anastasia before boarding himself. ‘I have sent one of my men after her. If he finds her, they will follow in the last boat.’ He glanced up at the remaining craft, still on the hoist. ‘If he does not, then she will either swim — or burn!’

The fire swirling around the mainmast deterred Rouphos from returning to the wheelhouse to sound the evacuation alarm. Instead he jumped down to the aft deck and went to open a wall panel in the gym, revealing a control board inside.

He flicked a switch to sound the general alarm, then activated the PA system. ‘Abandon ship!’ he snapped in Greek. ‘All hands to the boats!’ It was not standard procedure, but given the circumstances — gunfire was still being exchanged further forward — it was the best he could manage. Job done, he ran back to the stern to assist with the untying of the two boats, hoping the rest of his crew would reach them in very short order.

Had the captain gone to the bridge, though, he would have immediately spotted a new danger.

He had deactivated the autopilot to make the sharp turn that had taken Eddie out with the boom, then re-engaged the system as he hurried back to help secure the prisoner. The yacht had still been turning as he did so, but now it had settled on to its new course.

Straight towards a small uninhabited island, a ragged line of cliffs rising out of the sea like a rotten tooth.